Vintage Purse Museum Manufacturer Index

We were so lucky to have a conversation with Ms. Cheri Roock, the current owner of Pegie by the Sea! While our fun blue beverage handbag likely dates to the mid-1960s, when Joseph and Margaret Magargel owned the company, Ms. Roock, a former medical technologist, purchased Pegie by the Sea in 1995, becoming its fourth owner.

Pegie by the Sea appears to have been started in 1962 by Joseph and Margaret Magargel (see legal notice below; Pegie is a nickname for Margaret, so it is likely the company was named for her), then owned by their son, Forrest. We believe, through our research, that the Magargels were originally from Pennsylvania and that Joseph had a younger brother named Forrest who died in a car accident in 1939 at the age of 21. So it's probable that their son was named for his deceased uncle.

The company was sold by Forrest Magargel to a Canadian woman who was a Florida resident. The Canadian woman sold it to Ms. Roock after she left Florida to return to Canada to help run the family lodge.

The company, located in Key Largo, a resort town with many golf aficionados, eventually became known for its golf themed purses, golf wear and golf pins (jewelry). According to Ms. Roock, the purses were made of a durable, long-lasting marine vinyl that was all but indestructible. Customers have told her they wanted a new Pegie by the Sea bag, but their old one still has a lot of life left in it!

Please see below for more company info. Special thanks to the lovely Ms. Roock for taking so much time to talk to us. All newspaper ads, advertorials and articles clipped via a paid subscription to Newspapers.com.

Arguably the best-known designer of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Enid Collins began her company in 1959. The handbags were all wonderfully and whimsically designed with an abundance of faux gems, trims and themes. They were oft-imitated, but original Collins bags are highly collectible today. The Collins company was purchased by Tandy in 1970. Collins passed away in 1990.

While many three-way convertible handbags are best known as products of Lowy & Mund (L&M) or Edwards (see Bag Lady University for more info: http://www.bagladyemporium.com/BLU/index.php?n=Main.LowyMundLMEdwards), we learned that other manufacturers, including Kadin, made versions of it. The earliest ads we could find were from 1948, and these bags featured a chain handle. The most commonly found three-way bags now, and likely the most produced back then were from the 1960s, and had acrylic handles. These bags were available in several sizes and with numerous fabrics and patterns, but early versions were less showy than those of the late 1950s through the 1960s, which offered bolder prints and some metallic or "atomic" designs. Newspaper ads clipped online via Newspapers.com. All purses pictured and the magazine ad are from the collection of The Vintage Purse Gallery.

The Vintage Purse Museum

Welcome to the Manufacturer Index of The Vintage Purse Museum. Use the search box below or at the top left of the page to find a manufacturer. If you have information you would like to share about a vintage purse manufacturer, please email info@vintagepursemuseum.com. Unless otherwise indicated, purses shown are from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. Unless otherwise indicated, newspaper clippings are from Newspapers.com, to which we have a paid subscription. We do our best to credit sources. If there is an incorrect or incomplete credit, please email us.